Alfred Oppenheim
Alfred Oppenheim ( born November 3, 1878 in Berlin, † May 14, 1943 ) was a German chemist and mantle - producer.
Life and work
Family
Oppenheim's father, Adolph (1839-1913), worked as a merchant during the German Empire in Berlin. His mother Johanna, born Goldstandt (1851-1920), came from a wealthy hotelier family in Lobau. Alfred Oppenheim married in 1919 from a home with many children coming Frieda Gehrmann (* 1896). 1930 came his daughter Ilse lore to the world.
Training
Oppenheim visited following the preschool from 1887 to 1896 the Köllnische Gymnasium in Berlin. Immediately after graduation, he studied at the Technical University, the Mining Academy and the Friedrich -Wilhelms- University, the subjects of chemistry, physics, botany, bacteriology, mineralogy and philosophy. During this time, were among his teachers Blasius, Dilthey, Finkener, Fischer, Gabriel, Günther, van ' t Hoff, Jahn, Small, Lasson, Pringsheim, Rosenheim, Warburg, Wichelhaus and Witt.
His doctoral examination Oppenheim graduated with Simon Schwendenerstrasse in Botany, at Max Planck in Physics, Wilhelm Dilthey in philosophy and Siegmund Gabriel in chemistry. In 1900, he published his doctoral dissertation About ß - Benzoylisobuttersäure and some related pyridazine derivatives. The work was discussed in the Chemical Central-Blatt and supplemented by Oppenheim himself in an article for the prestigious reports of the German Chemical Society.
Chemist and industrialist
Richard Feuer & Co.
After completing his studies Oppenheim first worked as an analyst in mantle factories. In 1901 he got a job in the Berlin chemical company fire Richard & Co., which later became the Auergesellschaft. After just one year, he was appointed Director of Operations.
General Glühlichtwerke Dr. Alfred Oppenheim
1903 was carried out with the General Glühlichtwerken Dr. Alfred Oppenheim & Co. GmbH the establishment of the first private company in which Oppenheim with Julius and Rosa Rosenfeld told the management. The operation already counted almost 300 employees and produced about 30,000 daily Glühstrumpfe.
Aktien-Gesellschaft for Gasglühlicht
In 1905, the General Glühlichtwerke joined together due to the strong competition with other companies in Berlin for Aktien-Gesellschaft for Gasglühlicht, its Executive Board Oppenheim - next to Alfred Solomon, Julius Janz, Fritz Saulmann and Julius north - belonged.
Factory and laboratory Dr. Alfred Oppenheim
After finishing his work for the joint-stock company he founded 1910/1911 which in turn trading under its own name Fabrik Dr. Alfred Oppenheim, which was connected a chemical laboratory. The company supplied primarily authorities and made in the field of railway lighting a name. Mid -1930s, there were employed about 100 employees. The company's focus was the manufacture of incandescent bodies of all kinds Widespread found the brand heart that has been produced in several variants. More bulbs wore the legally protected name gemstone, topaz and violet. However, chemical and pharmaceutical products have been developed in the company, for example Selbstfilternde tablets.
Takeover of the First Rixdorfer mantle factory Alschweig & Co.
1922 Oppenheim took some ten years earlier, founded First Rixdorfer mantle factory Alschweig & Co., which - as well as his own company - specialized in chemical products and mantle.
Professional publicist
Oppenheim was not only enterprising, but also active in journalism. For many years he was listed as an employee of a professional journal for the lighting industry with the title and torch light ( Verlagsunion German publishing company ).
Association and expert activities
Hansa League
Oppenheim was one of the founders in 1909 of the liberal Hansa League for trade, commerce and industry. He was also a board member of this association, as well as chairman of the local chapter of Greater Berlin.
Association of Independent Glühkörperfabrikanten
1912 was carried out under Oppenheim's leadership, the foundation of the Association of Independent Glühkörperfabrikanten, chaired and he served until the end of the Weimar Republic. The association was from the beginning very well received and dealt with all the issues relevant to the industry. Initially, the focus was on improving conditions of purchase for association members and questions in connection with the Lamp control. Above all, however, the association had set in the beginning the goal of counteracting the monopoly of the lighting industry, led by the Auer Company. In the period after the First World War, the union then dealt, inter alia, with the revival of the export business and with the regulation of worker and employee issues.
Sworn expert
Since July 1921 Oppenheim worked for the Berlin Chamber of Commerce as a sworn expert for Gasglühlicht stockings and burner. Furthermore, he went to an expert working for the Berlin Court of Appeal and the Berlin Regional Court Districts I, II and III.
Art lovers and collectors
Oppenheim was at the beginning of the 20th century in his private apartment (Berlin, Katzbachstraße ) concerts, including with pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Alexandre Guilmant, Jules Mouquet and César Franck. He played it on an art harmonium, which left the company of his friend the French composer Alphonse Mustel (1873-1936) was born and was nowhere else presented in Germany.
As an entrepreneur, it brought Oppenheim to a larger personal fortune, which allowed him to pursue his passion as an art and book collector. Above all it had done to him the painting of the Golden Age in the Netherlands. The Berlin art historian and specialist in Dutch painting, Max J. Friedlander, advised him in building his collection with works by, inter alia, by Thomas Wyck, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne and Jan Steen.
After the seizure of power by the National Socialists was Oppenheim's collection, which is therefore attributed to the so-called stolen art, was dissolved. Parts of it went on sale, parts disappeared in a foreign private ownership.
The end
Oppenheim had left after his marriage in 1919 from Judaism. This prevented Nazi leaders not because his " Jewish " company settled during the course of the linearization. So the end of 1939 the company went out Dr. Alfred Oppenheim, 1940, the resolution of the First Rixdorfer mantle factory Alschweig & Co. was completed.
Under intense pressure from the National Socialists took place in 1940 and the cancellation of the so-called mixed marriage of Oppenheim with his Protestant faith belonging wife Frieda.
In his last years, Oppenheim had abzuleisten forced labor in a Berlin chemical factory. He died in the Jewish Hospital in Berlin and was buried on 20 May 1943, the Weissensee cemetery.